Egging Him On
by SpaceGrif
Summary: After an unexpected side-effect of Raven's ability to transform, Taiyang and Raven are left to care for a certain special someone. Not knowing what to do, Tai calls the only people who can help him in this situation.


In a small house, deep in the woods, there sat two parents, and a basket.

One was tall, and had blonde hair. He wore a disheveled tan shirt, and loose, faded jeans. His blue eyes were warm and kind...in most situations, at least. Now, they were hardened, and stared in both anger and confusion at his partner.

The woman was equally as tall as her partner, with spiked, raven-black hair hanging down her red kimono to her hips. Her eyes were a dusky red, and were weighted with care and drowsiness. Her face was pale, so much that it almost glowed, like the moon on a cloudless night.

In front of the both of them was a small, fleece-lined basket. And in that basket...was an egg. Bigger than either of their palms, and with a faint yellow tint to a normally white egg shell. It almost seemed to breathe with the promise of new life.

The man looked at his partner, then to the egg, and then back to her. "Raven." he growled. "We talked about this. You _promised."  
_  
Raven sighed, shaking her head. She really didn't have the energy to deal with this right now: it had, after all, been a pretty tough labor for her.

"I know, Tai." she groaned. "It was an accident."

"Okay, first." Tai said. "Phrasing. Second of all, you said you weren't going to turn into a Raven."

"You're repeating yourself, Tai." she said.

"Why, in the name of all that is holy, is our daughter an egg?!"

As it turns out, the egg in the basket was none other than Tai and Raven's child, transformed into a mature egg when Raven had shifted her own form. As a consequence, Raven had been forced to give birth to the egg of Yang Xiao Long, due to the differences between bird and human pregnancy phases. Meaning that, as of right now, Yang was an egg, to be birthed as a bird.

Raven was silent, thinking on the question. Gently, she reached down, turning the egg over, to allow the other side to receive the warmth of the heater they were using for the time being.

"I had cravings." she admitted. "The road was backed up, so I decide to shift...just enough to get some milk and chocolate. Maybe asparagus."

Tai sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I figured. The question is, what do we do now?"

"What do you mean?"

Tai gestured to the egg. "I don't think any of us know anything about raising an egg, and I sure as hell don't want to give our daughter to a chicken farmer."

Raven nodded, smoothing back her disheveled hair. "True."

"And I have a mission to go on." Tai continued. "So we need to figure something out."

Taiyang turned to Raven, looking her up and down. "Option one, we get the egg back in the oven."

Confusion crossed over the wife's face, then annoyance. "No, Tai." she said quietly, a hard edge on the words, her hand drifting to the katana that even now she kept strapped to her hip. "We are not doing that."

Tai shrugged. "Worth a shot. Option two, we get somebody to help you out."

"Got anybody in mind?"

Taiyang frowned, striking the short beard growing from his chin. He turned and began pacing the room, humming to himself.

"We need somebody dependable." he said. "Someone with motherly instincts, who can take time off, and who we know can be gentle, kind, and caring."

Taiyang stopped, and his eyes locked onto Raven's, widening. He smiled, and Raven gave a small grin.

"Are you..."

"Oh, I know _exactly_ who you're thinking."

Taiyang turned on his heel, marching into the kitchen, and towards the phone.

It was dark when she arrived.

She arrived as silently as a ghost, clad in a white cloak, the only color being her dark red hair and the single silver eyes peering out of the shadow of her hood. She drifted noiselessly down the path, towards the front door of the quaint little cabin she had been invited to.

She arrived in front of the door. Raising one hand, she rapped thrice on the door, waiting.

There was a short scuffle inside, followed by a curse. After another moment of silence, the door knob twisted, the door swinging open on it's hinges. Tai peered out for a moment, which was all the time he needed to recognize the distinctive white cloak.

"Thanks for coming, Summer." Tai said. "I know it's sudden."

Summer smiled, throwing back her hood as she stepped inside. "No worries, Tai." she said, her voice alight with energy and happiness despite the late hour. "I wasn't doing anything anyway. What's this about?"

Tai shut the door behind them, turning around. "It's about me and Raven's kid."

Summer frowned. "I thought Raven was only in her sixth month?" she asked. "Don't tell me she's already come out?"

Tai gave a nervous laugh. He waited for Summer to turn around again, and then discreetly wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. "No. I mean yes. I mean...Not...quite. It's complicated."

The two of them walked into the room, where Raven was sleeping, her head resting on the armrest of the couch. Next to her was the basket, sitting on the night-table.

Summer frowned, looking closely at Raven. "What happened to the baby?" she asked, sitting on the couch and smoothing back her best friend's dark locks.

Taiyang pointed at the basket. "You're looking at it."

Summer peered over, seeing the egg in the basket, atop a pile of straw and torn tissues.

"Tai."

"Yeah?"

"That's an egg."

"Well, yeah. But it's also our daughter. Like I said, complicated."

Summer stared, dumbfounded, at the egg. She turned to Taiyang, her eyes expressing great concern.

"Tai, are you and Raven okay?" she asked. "Have either of you felt anything bad recently?"

Tai raised an eyebrow, confused. "No, why?"

"Well, you had that gas leak a few weeks back."

Tai waved his hand dismissively. "Relax, it was just a few particles. We fixed it up in a day"

He stopped suddenly. "Wait, you don't think me and Raven are going loopy, are you?"

"I never said _that."_ Summer said, eyes downcast. "But now that you mention it..."

Tai shook his head. "Look, Summer, you know how Raven can turn into a raven, right?"

"...Yeah?"

"And you know how she was pregnant?"

Summer's eyes widened. "So what you're telling me, is that she gave birth to an egg?"

"Yep."

Summer looked at the egg, grinning. "That's weird but adorable."

Taiyang nodded. He was about to say more, but his scroll buzzed. He reached into his pocket, eyes skimming over the message. He replaced it in his pocket, reaching down and picking up the duffle bag Summer had just noticed was next to him.

"I gotta go." he said. "My flight leaves soon, and I'm not even through security yet."

He turned to leave, but was stopped by the panicked voice of Summer Rose.

"Wait! How do I take care of an egg?"

Taiyang looked at her for a moment, then shrugged. "I dunno."

With that, he left through the door, shutting the door behind him. Once the door was closed, he stopped, breathing a sigh of relief. He loved his family, but he wasn't about to get involved in that hell that is raising an egg-child.

Inside, Summer Rose simply stared after him, silent. Then, she flopped down on the couch, the movement not disturbing Raven in the slightest. She stared down at the egg, unsure of what to do.

She turned and stared at egg. Taking out her Scroll, she looked up how to take care of raven eggs. She found nothing she could understand: most of the sites around were for farmers, not babysitters hooked into taking care of a completely out of context baby. Not exactly helpful, considering she had neither a chicken nor a coop.

She thought about waking up Raven, but dismissed the idea out of hand. She remembered when she would accidentally wake Raven up back at Beacon, and it was not an experience she would like to repeat.

Raven had, after all, ruined her favorite bed sheet. With a _lot_ of stabs. Luckily, Summer had been in the bathroom, and the worst damage was to her sheets and pillows.

Raven thought for a moment more, unsure of what to do. Then it dawned on her: if she couldn't get the mother bird or the father to take care of it, she'd need to get the next best thing.

She opened up her Scroll, calling the number on her emergency contacts list.

The dial tone rang for a few seconds, before it was picked up.

"Hullo?" slurred the voice on the other end of the line. "Who's this?"

"Qrow, listen, I need your help."

"Summer?" Qrow said on the other end of the line. "What's this about? You know it's, like, five in the afternoon, right?"

"Qrow it's twelve in the morning."

"...Shit."

"Qrow, I need you to focus." Summer said, irritated. "Get your drunken a...butt over here. I'm serious."

"Got it, boss." Qrow replied. "Where at?"

"Tai's place." Summer said.

"Why are you there?" He asked, a bit harsher than he probably meant.

"Jealous?"

"Call it curious."

"Listen, just get over here. I need you."

It was about an hour before Qrow arrived. He stumbled up the steps to the door. He was about to knock, when the door flew open, causing Qrow to stumble forward.

Summer gripped his dress shirt in one hand and hauled Qrow in, shutting the door with the other. She placed him against the wall, staring angrily at him, while he simply stood there.

"Where were you?!" she whispered. "It's not that far from here to Signal!"

Qrow shrugged. "Traffic."

"In the _air?!"_

"It's summer. Birds from up north are migrating. I almost got mugged by a goose."

Summer leaned forward, smelling his breath. "Are you drunk again?"

"A better question would be 'how long have I been drunk'."

"It's a week day!"

"I'd have been better in the morning if you didn't wake me up."

Summer sighed, letting Qrow go. She turned around, but not before Qrow caught the wide grin she was trying to hide. He smiled as well: he and her had always talked like this: a verbal battle between the two, for fun.

He followed Summer into the family room, noting his sister sleeping on the couch. He then saw the basket, and what was in it.

Summer began speaking, still in a whisper. "Listen, Raven..."

"Laid an egg." Qrow interrupted, as normally and non-panicked as though his sister laying an egg was an everyday occurrence.

Summer stared at him, wide-eyed. "How did you know?!"

Qrow shrugged. "Back where Raven and I came from, this kinda thing happens sometimes."

Summer simply stood, staring. "It happens?"

Qrow didn't respond, instead striding over to the egg. He frowned, his nose flaring. He leaned forward, gingerly picking the basket up, revealing the hot plate beneath.

"What are you doing, trying to hard boil the kid?" he said jokingly. He shut off the hot plate, putting the basket down on the table.

Summer stared as Qrow went to work, without so much as direction from her. He rearranged the nest, making a little depression in the middle, so the egg was in a small valley, the shell below the tissues and grass. He fixed the basket up, tidying the mess that it had been before.

He turned to Summer when he was finished. "Now, normally, the mother would sit on the egg, to keep it warm." he continued.

"So, should we wake Raven up?"

Qrow shook his head vigorously. "I'm drunk, not suicidal."

"So what do we do?"

Qrow looked at the egg, frowning. Sighing, he removed his massive sword from where it hung on his hip, setting it down on the wall.

"Looks like uncle has to do everything." he sighed.

There was no real ceremony to what happened next: it was as though Summer had blinked, and Qrow had disappeared. One second, Qrow was in front of her. The next, there was no Qrow. Only a large, black bird, standing in his place. He looked back at Summer, a single red eye peering at her. He gave a short _caw,_ which somehow expressed a lot of emotion into a single noise.

The transformed Qrow hopped up on the table, a short flap of his wings propelling him onto the table surface. He stepped up, slowly stepping into the nest. He shook himself for a moment, before lowing himself onto the egg, careful not to break the shell.

As soon as Summer was certain that Qrow had the egg situation handled, Summer flopped on the couch, resting a moment. It was late, and soon, her heavy eyelids closed over her eyes, and she fell asleep, confident that Qrow knew what he was doing.

Egging Him On, Part 2:

...

A few hours later, Summer Rose awoke. She opened her bleary eyes, slowly blinking them awake. She rose from the couch, stretching her limbs with a content groan.

Summer looked around her, noticing how the sunlight streamed through the cabin windows, illuminating the room with a light orange glow. The clock behind her showed that it was about 8 o' clock. Morning.

In front of her, the large black bird still sat atop the egg, though it's head drooped slightly. It turned one eye upon her, and gave a _caw,_ though it sounded more like a cough than the sound a bird made.

Summer looked at him, smiling. "How was your night, Qrow?" she teased. "Get a good night's sleep?"

Qrow gave her the best stink eye he could, given the situation, one blood red eye glaring at her. In response, she simply continued smiling. On the couch, Raven continued sleeping, seeming to be in an almost comatose state. After the night she had, though, Summer sympathized with her. Normal human birth was painful (or so she had been told), and it wasn't often one had to give birth to an egg, as a bird, before transforming back to human. She'd earned a little sleep.

Summer's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of rumbling, that she was surprised to find came from her own stomach.

"They can handle themselves for a bit." she said, rubbing her stomach. Summer walked to the other end of the family room, into the kitchen. She looked around until her eyes lit up on the refrigerator. She opened the fridge, rooting through it for some food. She found a half carton of eggs, some asparagus, and assorted snack foods. She took out the milk and eggs, and walked over to the stove. She frowned, noticing how wide the stove seemed. She shrugged it off as her tired brain imagining things, and turned, towards the cabinets on the adjacent wall. Or, rather, she would have, if she hadn't seen, halfway there, that the cabinets were closer to the roof than they were to the floor.

Summer stared upwards, confused, at the cabinets a solid foot above her reach.

"Why." Was the only response she could muster up. "Just why."

She was snapped out of her fit of disbelief by a loud yawn from behind her, and to the left. Turning, Summer saw Raven leaning in the doorway, her hair mussed from sleep.

"Oh. Uh, good morning Raven."

"Mornin' Rose. You get Tai's call?"

Summer nodded. "Yep. Got here as soon as I could, but you were already asleep, so Tai let me in."

Raven nodded. "Probably for the best. Don't tell Taiyang this, but I was kinda a bitch last night."

"Language, Raven!" Summer protested.

Raven shook her head. "Blow me, Rose." she said. "I just gave birth yesterday, I can say whatever the hell I want."

Raven started walking into the room, but Summer planted herself in front of her, crossing her arms.

"Oh, no you don't." she scolded. "Babies start learning before they're born, and we can't have your child learning curses. So no cursing!"

Raven glared at Summer. "When did you suddenly become an expert mom?"

"When you asked for my help."

Silence was all that passed between the two, before Raven averted her eyes. "Fine." she muttered.

Summer smiled. "See? Is that so hard? You're learning!"

"And you're patronizing."

"Just a little." Summer shot back, an un-irkable smirk plastered on her face.

Raven gave a heavy sigh, sidestepping the smaller woman and walking into the kitchen. Echoing Summer's actions, she walked to the fridge, opening the door and rooting through it for food. However, she reached further back in the fridge, and Summer could see her shoulder move slightly. A second later, there was a muffled _click,_ and from the fridge, Raven withdrew a chocolate bar.

Summer's smile melted off as she watched Raven tear into the chocolate with an animalistic, ravenous need.

"I could've sworn there wasn't a chocolate bar in there before." she asked.

Raven looked down at the chocolate bar. "What, this?" she said between mouthfuls, waving the bar in front of Summer. "Tai made a secret panel inside, and thinks I don't know about it."

"Why?"

Raven shrugged. "I don't know. But if you think that's bad, you should've seen what he did with the master bed."

"What did he do?"

"He turned it into a railgun." Raven said nonchalantly, as though it barely mattered. She turned and strode towards the cabinets, leaving Summer to wonder if the dark haired warrior was being serious.

Raven looked at the cabinets, frowning. She outstretched her hand, and in front of it, a small portal colored dark red appeared, a swirling circle of energy. She reached her hand through, and when she withdrew it, she held in her hand a box of Pumpkin Pete's.

Summer gaped at the spectacle, as Raven also withdrew a bowl and spoon.

"That's not fair." she whined.

Raven simply smiled, continuing to pour her cereal. "Tai just doesn't want all our dishes to get broken, in case a Grimm attacks." she explained. She turned back towards Summer, happily munching her cereal.

Summer looked from Raven to the cabinets above her head, pouting. She'd always been the shortest member of the team, and the fact that she couldn't climb the counters without dirtying them was not lost on her.

"Hey, Raven?" she asked.

"Hm?"

"Can you, ah." she began, pointing to the cabinets. "Get me a bowl? And whisk, if you have one."

Raven stopped a moment, setting her bowl down. She reached forward, two more portals appearing in front of her. Out of them, she withdrew both a medium-sized bowl, and a whisk. She passed them down the counter to Summer, who accepted them with a grateful nod.

Summer began working on the eggs, cracking them into the bowl, and from there adding the milk. A few minutes later, and she had some scrambled eggs. There were some things even a cook as bad as Summer couldn't mess up, and among those things were cookies and scrambled eggs.

"Qrow!" she called. "Breakfast!"

There was silence, and then a groan, as Qrow entered the doorway, disheveled and looking as though he'd just gotten over a hangover. Which, to be fair, he probably had.

He sat down at the table, letting Summer pile some eggs on a plate for him.

"Thanks Rosey Cheeks." he said, digging in.

"You're welcome, you dusty old crow." she said.

"I'm twenty-six." he muttered, his mouth full of food. Summer and Raven laughed.

"Doesn't stop you from having grey hairs, brother." Raven chuckled. She leaned over and made a show of going through her brother's hair for emphasis, plucking out a few of the offending 'grey hairs'. "Maybe you shouldn't hang out with Oz so much."

The three of them sat at the table, much like a normal family would, with Summer at the head, and the Branwen twins on either side. Only, of course, this family consisted of highly trained, highly lethal mercenaries...but that was semantics. To each other, they were just people, and they took comfort in each others' presence.

Eventually, Summer broke the comfortable silence. "So, Qrow." she asked. "Where did you learn how to take care of eggs?"

"Well, back and me and Raven's tri...village, we weren't the only ones who could shapeshift." he began. "A couple others could do it. Wasn't exactly a common thing, but nobody was surprised if it turned out your cousin was a raven. Sometimes, things like this would happen: somebody'd get pregnant, transform, and next thing you know, you have eggs. So some of us took the time to take care of them, in case we ever wanted to have kids and something happened."

Summer nodded. "So, did you do it a lot?"

"Enough." he responded. "I just liked helping out.

Raven snorted in playful disdain. "Or maybe it's just because the adults were the only ones who could stand you."

Qrow raised a finger, about to retort, but stopped. Abruptly, he got up from the table, walking back towards the family room, where the egg resided.

"What's he doing?" Summer asked as she watched him go.

Raven watched him go, then shrugged. "Qrow's probably gotten attached to the egg." she said. "That's instinct for ya."

Leaning from her seat, Summer could just barely see the red-cloaked Huntsman, standing over the egg. Gingerly, he reached down, picking up the fragile ovoid with the tips of his fingers. Slowly, like he was handling material from a government-grade Dust reactor, he rotated his wrist, and with it the egg. He let go, and looked at it for a few more seconds, his eyes scanning rapidly.

Satisfied, he turned, striding back to his place at the table. He sat down with a short groan.

"Sorry about that." he said. "Had to go take care of the kid."

Summer nodded. "It's okay." she said. "Mommy's gotta take care of her kids."

In complete, spontaneous unison, both of the Branwens put down their forks, gave Summer a glare that could wilt flowers, and said "Shut up."

Summer looked between them, face contorted in a look of pain...and then she burst out laughing, a full-blown belly laugh that made her double over.

"What?" Raven asked accusingly. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. It's nothing, really!" Summer giggled, regaining control of herself and wiping a tear from her eye.

Raven stared at her suspiciously, while Qrow gave a conspiratorial wink, going back to his own meal.  
Eventually, they were all finished. They got up from the table, stting aside their dishes. Raven went into the family room, and transformed in the same manner as Qrow, albeit as a larger raven rather than a crow. She took up Qrow's station atop the egg, while Qrow and Summer cleaned.

Summer took the dishes off the table, piling them in the sink. She turned around to get the tablecloth, however, she was taken aback by what she saw, a sight that she was sure would remain with her the rest of her life.

Standing there, with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up over the elbows, was Qrow. He wore his normal clothes, but atop his shirt, he wore an apron. It was white, and was adorned with a bright yellow sunflower and bright floral lettering, which read "Kiss the Cook".

Summer stared, as Qrow, in a single sweep of his hand, took the tablecloth off the table, and neatly folded it. He placed it in the hamper, and walked over to the sink, turning on the water, all the while Summer stared.

Qrow spotted her out of the corner of his eye. "Something on your mind, Summer?" he asked, scrubbing dishes.

Summer shook herself awake, pointing at Qrow's attire. "Y-you're wearing an _apron."_ she said.

Qrow shrugged. "So?"

"Why?"

"Summer, do you know how much this shirt costs?" Qrow asked her. "Alot." he answered, before she could. "And I'm living off of a teacher's salary. I'm not staining this shirt."

That wasn't exactly the answer Summer was looking for, but it satisfied her for now.

With nothing left to do, Summer walked back to the family room, flopping on the couch. Raven watched her sit down, and if ravens could smirk, Raven would have pulled it off.


End file.
